The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" | 
 enlarge | Author: Linda Porter
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 208132
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.8 x 1.4
ISBN: 0312368372
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.054092
EAN: 9780312368371
ASIN: 0312368372
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
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Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
In this groundbreaking new biography of “Bloody Mary,” Linda Porter brings to life a queen best remembered for burning hundreds of Protestant heretics at the stake, but whose passion, will, and sophistication have for centuries been overlooked. Daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, wife of Philip of Spain, and sister of Edward VI, Mary Tudor was a cultured Renaissance princess. A Latin scholar and outstanding musician, her love of fashion was matched only by her zeal for gambling. It is the tragedy of Queen Mary that today, 450 years after her death, she remains the most hated, least understood monarch in English history. Linda Porter’s pioneering new biography—based on contemporary documents and drawing from recent scholarship—cuts through the myths to reveal the truth about the first queen to rule England in her own right. Mary learned politics in a hard school, and was cruelly treated by her father and bullied by the strongmen of her brother, Edward VI. An audacious coup brought her to the throne, and she needed all her strong will and courage to keep it. Mary made a grand marriage to Philip of Spain, but her attempts to revitalize England at home and abroad were cut short by her premature death at the age of forty-two. The first popular biography of Mary in thirty years, The First Queen of England offers a fascinating, controversial look at this much-maligned queen.
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 A book about the Mary Tudor you never knew. January 2, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The name Mary Tudor often conjures the image of a rather dull and unattractive Catholic queen. Mary is long remembered for her unpopular marriage to Philip of Spain and the burning of hundreds of Protestants. In the Myth of Bloody Mary: The First Queen of England, Linda Porter has attempted to bring to light information that have been overshadowed by Mary negative image.
When you think of Queen Elizabeth's sister, you probably imagine a very stoic and reserved woman. While it is true that Mary did not share Elizabeth's people person personality, Mary Tudor was anything but dull. She loved music and especially dance. She was also considered quite the fashionista trendsetter of her times. Mary loved beautiful gowns in the French design. She also loved beautiful jewelry and owned many exquisite pieces. Like her sister, Elizabeth, Mary had coppery red hair, a long nose, and a heart shaped face. Porter writes that although Mary was not considered a beauty, she well known for her beautiful complexion and graceful manners.
Mary's decision to marry a foreigner, especially a Catholic one who clearly did not love her and was even physically repulsed by her, made Mary incredibly unpopular to some in her day. However, Porter claims Mary's marriage to Philip was made after much deliberations and careful planning. Mary saw marriage to a great European power as a way of bolstering England's power in sixteenth-century world politics. After all, marriage to an English subject would bring nothing to the table for England. Instead, Porter claims that Mary carefully considered the pro and cons and made the best decision for her country.
Mary made a special effort to restrict Philip's powers. He would not appoint Spaniards to posts and offices and most important he would not have any place at court after Mary's death. This contradicts the well known story of Mary falling helplessly in love and throwing caution to the wind upon viewing Philip's portrait. Philip's lack of interest in Mary is a well known fact. The author does write of Philip's romantic and sexual indifference towards Mary, however, she claims Philip did care for his wife. In fact, his charming manners and attentive ways may have been mistaken for romantic love by Mary.
The nickname of bloody Mary has been attributed to Mary due to the burning of three hundred Protestants during her reign. Porter writes that the majority of these deaths were ordered by local authorities and consisted of common people. Mary Tudor ordered few executions. The executions that Mary did order involved high profile Protestants, one of them being the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who pronounced her father's divorce from her mother, Katherine of Aragon. Overall, Mary had little to do with the burning of other Protestants. Porter claims Mary support of the execution of Protestants had more to do with her attempt to enforce her role as monarch and less to do with religious intolerance. Instead Mary favored peaceful means of converting Protestants. She encouraged fervent sermons to educate the young and the publication of Catholic literature to counter the numerous Protestant pamplets circulating throughout England.
Linda Porter credits Mary's negative image to Protestant reformer and historian, John Foxxe, a man that Mary most likely never met. John Foxxe left England for Protestant Basle in 1554 where he wrote his Acts and Monuments, a book of Christian martyrs who died during Mary's reign. It was this book that Linda Porter believes created the negative image of Mary that survives to this day.
I found The First Queen of England: The Myth of Bloody Mary extremely enlightening. I always thought I knew everything there was to know about Mary Tudor, but this book proved me wrong. Behind the stories of Protestant executions and an unrequited love to a Spanish prince, there is a story of a brave and strong-willed woman who lost everything, her father, her mother, her title, and her place in the line of succession. One thing Mary Tudor refused to ever give up is in her faith in the Catholic church. It is unfortunate that Mary's loyal devotion to the Catholic doctrine is what tarnished her reputation.
Very detailed and interesting take on Mary I. October 5, 2008
This book took me a lot further into a story I thought I already knew. Though I haven't read any of the works that condemn Mary as a monarch, I hardly felt that this work was overly-sympathetic or forgiving. I think everything was explained very clearly and I enjoyed the book a lot. I give the book five stars because I feel like I learned a lot from it, it was an enjoyable read, and I think the author did a great job putting all of this information together.
Surprising book September 7, 2008
I've read a lot about "Bloody Mary" and this book gave me a "devil's advocate" approach if you would. It takes into account all the things she went through in her life, including the horrible way I feel she was treated by her family(Hapsburgs, included) and gives you a look into why she made the decisons that she made. It hasn't changed my mind about her, but it's nice to see a book that isn't totally negative for once.
A Long Overdue Fresh Look at 'Bloody' Mary August 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dr Linda Porter has meticulously researched the tragic life of England's first queen regnant in her vivid and well-written book. For readers who only know the 'myth' of Bloody Mary, Porter's book offers a real glimpse of the all-too-human queen behind that myth. For those who think they know the 'real' Mary, they, too, will have a stunning surprise and fascinating read. We see Mary hurtling toward disaster after disaster, from the moment she's put in the care of her tutor, Jean de Vives; to the confrontations of long, obdurate duration with her father, Henry VIII; through the separations from her mother and her half-siblings; and headlong into a disastrous, love-struck marriage with Philip II of Spain. Mary's story has been much neglected by historians to date -- with the great Dr David Starkey even lumping her together with her half-brother Edward VI as the 'forgotten Tudors'. Yet Mary's reign (as well as that of her brother Edward) was a watershed, not only in English history, but in the history of the Protestant reformation movement that spread with England's nascent empire during her half-sister Elizabeth I's reign. Without understand Mary Tudor, we can't understand why and how Elizabeth and other monarchs acted after her. This is a must read for anyone interested in British history, family history, or the history of Catholicism and the Protestant reformation.
 Not impartial, more of a whitewash July 28, 2008
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
Periodically some historian writes a new biography of "Bloody" Mary I, queen of England from 1553-1558, seeking to rehabilitate her reputation. Her short reign was marked by a rise in religious reaction that resulted in some 270 deaths through judicial murder, the flight of some 800 important Protestants abroad seeking to save their lives, and largely alienated the English public from the Roman Catholic Church. In this book, author and historian Linda Porter sets out to show Mary as a cultured Renaissance monarch, moderate, but determined to revitalize England.
Overall, I found this to be a disappointing book. I think that the author did a good job of showing how Mary had been cruelly treated by her father, and by the powerful men who ruled Tudor England before her ascension to the throne. However, once the narrative reaches Mary's coronation, that earlier treatment seems to be forgotten - as showing her to have been vengeful, or perhaps just another player in the Tudor blood sport of politics, would have undercut the author's recasting of Mary as enlightened monarch.
Further, the author eschews any discussion of Mary's mental instability, for example not going into any great detail on Mary's two phantom pregnancies, or their significance. The author laid a great deal of blame for Mary's subsequent reputation on the person of John Foxe, the author of the Book of Martyrs, but fails to go into any detail on how one book could so overcome the "truth" of Mary's enlightenment.
No, I must say that I did not find this to be a good, impartial book on Queen Mary I, but saw it as more of a whitewash of her flaws. Has Mary been mistreated by historians since her reign? Most certainly. But, was she an enlightened and humanistic ruler, one of England's best monarchs? I think that that is going more than a little too far. Overall, I do not recommend this book.
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